Various soldering devices and techniques are known in the prior art. One particular application of the joining of two items by soldering is the connection of miniature and subminiature connectors to very thin flat flexible cables. In this application, conventional soldering techniques have been limited to the low to intermediate temperature solders. Fabrication temperatures are restricted to around 180.degree. C. or less to prevent damage to the plastic insulation on the thin flat cables. This restriction precludes the use of the higher melting temperature solders with correspondingly greater thermal fatigue resistance. Presently, connections to flat cables are made using conventional soldering techniques using Eutectic 63 SN, 37 Pb solder, which has a melting point of around 183.degree. C. This solder has low thermal fatigue resistance, and failures have been known to occur at only several thousand cycles at moderate -40.degree. to +40.degree. C. low cyclic conditions. For example, on one item of space hardware, solar array panels exhibited solder fatigue after only 10,000 thermal cycles. This is of great concern when fabricating hardware for use in outer space. The anticipated temperatures in this environment for many orbital platforms may range from -40.degree. C. to +115.degree. C. at 5,000 cycles per year for thirty years, or 150,000 cycles. The hundreds to thousands of solder connections required in this type of hardware requires a high reliability solder technique. In addition, each orbit in and out of the sun will produce wide temperature swings further exacerbating the thermal stresses placed on these connections.